This paper is based on my presentations at the 1991 meeting of the UK Development Studies Association and the faculty seminars at the Witwatersrand University and the University of South Africa. I am grateful to participants at these meetings for their comments and suggestions. The paper has also greatly benefited from comments made by Yusuf Bangura, Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara, Frances Stewart, Peter Utting and David Westendorff. I am grateful to Veena Jha, Jane Parpart, Tim Shaw and Harsha Singh for stimulating discussions on this subject. I would like to thank Akpan Etukudo, Frédéric Grare and Rosemary Max for assistance with documentation, Jenifer Freedman for editing the paper and Rhonda Gibbes for proof-reading and formatting it. This paper will be included in a forthcoming volume from Macmillan entitled Market Forces and World Development, edited by R. Prendergast, F. Stewart and D. Marsden.